University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: More Than A Mind
September 20, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Sept. 20, 2011
By Adam Lucas
Carolina's recruitment of Tyler Zeller was as simple as a quadratic equation. Or, more precisely, it actually included some quadratic equations.
Zeller, who did a finance internship last summer and took corporate finance during summer school in 2011, was a highly sought-after high school prospect who fielded hundreds of recruiting phone calls. So he had to find a way to multitask.
"When Coach (Joe) Holladay used to call me during recruiting, I would do my calculus homework while I was talking to him," Zeller says. "He never knew I was doing it, and I was paying attention to what he said to me. But I've always been good with numbers."
He's not talking about numbers like points and rebounds, although as a junior he quietly tied for the team lead in scoring and finished second in rebounding on his way to second-team All-ACC honors. Instead, he's talking about...well, let's be honest. I'm not exactly sure what he is talking about.
Zeller tries to explain the differences between the various sides of investment banking. It sounds something like this, which I have transcribed word-for-word in the hopes that future scientists will be able to interpret what he's saying: "In investment banking you value mortgages, bonds, stocks, loans, interest, things like that. You have to value the stocks, so there's always going to be an element that deals only with numbers. There's also an element of valuing the managers and their strategies and the business as a whole. You can do profiles and reduce the risk as much as possible to try and remove all systematic risk. That's what I like. I like the challenge of evaluating people and considering the value of stocks and bonds."
Got all that? This is where you might not be surprised to learn that Zeller was the first Tar Heel since fellow Hoosier Eric Montross to earn first-team Academic All-America honors.
Oh, and in more sportswriter-friendly news: Tyler Zeller is also very good at basketball.
So good, in fact, that he pondered making a move to the NBA after his junior season, when he was an essential part of a Carolina team that advanced to the regional final. Harrison Barnes is flashier. John Henson is more elastic. But when Roy Williams has his very best teams, they almost always include a player like Zeller--a post man in the mold of Sean May or Tyler Hansbrough, who can put down anchor on the block, wait for the post entry, and score consistently.
Sometimes, it almost seems Zeller doesn't get enough national credit for his game because the storyline about him has already been established--he's the scholar-athlete. But as a junior he was also good, even historically good, on the team's biggest stage. In Carolina's 2011 NCAA Tournament run, he became the first Tar Heel since Donald Williams in 1993 to score at least 20 points in four straight NCAA Tournament games.
That type of production hasn't gone unnoticed by scouts. Zeller, the middle child of three basketball-playing brothers (older brother Luke played at Notre Dame, younger brother Cody is a freshman at Indiana), did consider professional basketball. Ultimately, however, he felt injuries during his Carolina career had prevented him from soaking up the maximum college experience.
"Really, I've only played one year here," Zeller says. "My freshman year, I was part of that team but it was a very small role. They were very talented, and they just didn't need me as much. I came back for my sophomore year, and I got hurt. I was frustrated after those two years. We went to the NIT and I still hadn't really played in the NCAA Tournament.
"Last year was the first year I truly was able to do that. To get there and see that excitement, now I know what it's like to play a part in a big-time team. We've got the opportunity to go a little further this year and hopefully win it all. I wanted to be a part of that."
To increase his chances of being part of a special team, Zeller spent his summer focused on rebounding and defense. Paradoxically, it's one of his best attributes--the ability to sprint down the floor ahead of the defense, where he's often on the receiving end of a long Kendall Marshall pass for a layup--that also might slightly inhibit his rebounding.
"I have a habit of trying to run out too early," Zeller says. "In pickup games, I've been working on staying under the boards for another half-second instead of taking off so quickly. That can be the difference in getting an extra rebound or two."
There he goes, parsing the numbers again. For Zeller, it's as natural as a telephone conversation.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter and Facebook.
